Do we perpetuate Black stereotypes?

Many African-Americans feel like there has been an unofficial war declared on Blacks, especially young Black males. Just in the past month alone, there have been the police murders of Eric Garner (Staten Island, N.Y.), Ezell Ford (Los Angeles, and Michael Brown (Ferguson, Mo.). Each of these victims were all unarmed, young, Black and male.

Based on what we know so far, I think all the policemen involved in these unjustified deaths should be convicted of murder and sent to jail.

Misperception and stereotypes
As abhorrent as these actions were, they should spark a larger, separate conversation about the images that we have created around Black life and Black culture. To reiterate, regardless of these images, there is no justification for killing those young Black men. Let’s be clear about that.

For the past 30 years, we have created images of Blacks in the most negative of lights. For those who would say it’s just music, it’s just a movie, it’s just a reality TV show; I say now there is just another Black body lying in the streets of America.

Before you go to war, the first thing that is needed is to create a psychological operations campaign (psy-ops). This is a tactic that the military uses to marginalize its targeted population so that when the troops are sent in to destroy this group, there is no public outcry.

Devalue the group
Just look at how the U.S. military vilified and demonized former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and terrorist Osama Bin Laden before we set out to kill them. Upon their deaths at the hands of the U.S. military, the American people cheered because we had devalued and marginalized them before the American people.

I can’t help but ask the Black community, have we unleashed a pys-ops campaign on our own people?

In the horror movie series Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein did not set out to create a monster; but rather he was a scientist playing around in his laboratory. As a result of this experimentation, he created a monster that neither he nor society could control.

In a similar manner, one could argue that Blacks, specifically in Hip-Hop, have experimented in the laboratory called a recording studio; and by exercising their First Amendment Right of freedom of speech and expression through music, they have created their own version of Frankenstein.

Keeping it real goes wrong
In the beginning, like with Frankenstein, people marveled at this new creation and people were willing to pay to see and hear it. There was “Rappers Delight,” there was “The Message,” and there was “Fight the Power.” Then, the imagery and lyrics took a twisted turn under a perverted interpretation of the First Amendment called “keeping it real.”

When rap music started, it was a verbal extension of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s in the spirit of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; it was about the uplifting of our community and providing a voice to those often without a voice.

Then in the 1990s, rap took a more militaristic tone with the creation of “gangsta rap.” This too, was an verbal extension of the Civil Rights movement; but more in the spirit of Malcolm X on steroids.

This ultimately led to the “thug” culture, personified by hit movies like Scarface, New Jack City and Carlito’s Way; each glorified the criminal lifestyle.

Then you had the crack epidemic of the 1990s with the violence that it brought into the hood. All these factors combined to create a narrative that Black life was worthless and Black youth brought no value to society.

2 Responses to Do we perpetuate Black stereotypes?

Much of the problem has to do with the training of police. In our culture, police insist on instant escalation and instant capture. Compare Europe: If I speed, the police take a picture of the license plate, and I get a ticket in the mail. No high-speed chases. British cops do just fine without carrying guns. According to several interviews, they’re OK with being unarmed. When European cops use guns, they use them to disable, not to kill; and they are trained to do so. According to reliable sources, US police is trained to kill, not to disable. In fact, according to some sources, US police are trained in Israel for crowd control–and what that looks like we know amply from all the dead victims in Gaza–albeit Netanyahu calls them suicidal telegenic corpses. I have never heard of a police department with an ethics officer; perhaps there should be one such everywhere in conjunction with some citizens oversight.

Self expression of ones culture does not give way to perpetuating a negative image; blacks have always been perceived as a lower class, ineffective human beings despite what is evident in history. Every culture has a multitude of expressions that depict who we really are, so do Asians, Hispanics and Native Americans. However Blacks images have not been misrepresented by use but by a society su un accepting and exclusive. This attitude is prevalent in law enforcement and our judicial system; but should not be a gateway for inhuman and unfair treatment or judgement.